The present invention is directed to power driven wheelchairs, in general, and, more particularly, a method and apparatus for programming parameters of a power driven wheelchair for a plurality of drive settings using a common menu image of an interactive display screen.
Power driven wheelchairs, which may be of the type manufactured by Invacare Corporation of Elyria, Ohio, for example, are generally controlled by an electronic control system. An exemplary control system for power or motor driven wheelchairs is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,981, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Setting Speed/Response Performance Parameters of a Power Driven Wheelchair”, issued Nov. 16, 2004, and assigned to the same assignee as the instant application, which patent being incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Typically, power driven wheelchairs have a plurality of drive settings for operation of the wheelchair by the user. An exemplary wheelchair may include four drive settings which may be Drive 1 (D1) for indoor operation, Drive 2 (D2) for moderate outdoor operation, Drive 3 (D3) for special operation, and Drive 4 (D4) for ramps and curbs. For each drive setting, there are numerous performance and power seating parameters which are programmed into the control system to satisfy the operational capabilities of the individual user of the wheelchair. The programming task is normally conducted through a hand held programmer unit having an interactive display and coupled to the control system much as described in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,981, for example.
Currently, a set of parameters may be programmed into the control system through the interactive display of the programmer unit for only one drive setting at a time which renders the task of programming rather time consuming and onerous. It is desired to improve this parameter programming task to permit parameter programming through the interactive display for any drive setting without having to change display screens.